


Spring Winds Carry The Scent Of You

by softbutchmomo (Carazhan)



Category: TWICE (Band)
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, F/F, Fluff, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-20
Updated: 2018-07-04
Packaged: 2019-04-26 04:23:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply, Underage
Chapters: 8
Words: 19,368
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14394222
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Carazhan/pseuds/softbutchmomo
Summary: It’s yet another year, filled with familiar faces… and a few new ones, including one Hirai Momo, a timid girl Myoui Mina feels inexplicably drawn to. ABO/Omegaverse, but don’t let that scare you.





	1. ABO Primer

**Author's Note:**

> As a disclaimer, this probably won’t be a typical ABO/Omegaverse fic. I like the potential the dynamics bring to the table, but I don’t always love how smut-focused the trope is. This will be a good deal more lighthearted than the norm, and also won’t contain instant falling-in-lust, for reasons that’ll be revealed later on. I hope my platonic+romance-focused portrayal of this universe will be palatable for readers who aren’t used to this trope, and yet engaging for readers who are coming here for ABO content.
> 
> This intro 'chapter' acts as a primer for all of you who have no idea what the heck is going on here.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You can find me on twitter @softbutchmomo

**So what is ABO?**

ABO stands for Alpha/Beta/Omega, also known as Alpha/Omega or simply Omegaverse, is a cross-fandom trope that utilizes a born-into 3-caste system typically centered around mating. The specifics of ABO vary greatly from fic to fic - with some containing some pretty out-there kinks. For this fic, the specifics are outlined below. If it’s not mentioned, it won’t be present.

###  **The Castes:**

**Alphas:** _30% of population - Highest status._

Often assertive, charismatic, confident leaders. Are seen as ideal partners in media, though alphas in reality may be reckless, cocky, easily angered, or violent. Characterized by varying sexual anatomy, the ability to create a **mating bond** , and sharing **heat** cycles with bonded omegas. An alpha's heat is sometimes referred to as a **rut**.

**Betas:** _50% of population - Normal status._

The most typical ‘caste’ - most are akin to normal humans, with few small differences. A small population of betas (called **sub-betas** ) experience **unproductive attraction**. However, this form of heat in betas seems unable to be triggered by other betas, though further research is needed to declare this with any certainty.

**Omegas:** _20% of population - Varying status._

Omegas are highly sought after romantically and sexually. They are seen as empathetic, mild-mannered, courageous, and kind. Some omegas may be overemotional, cold, anxious, or proud. As a result of their relative rarity and prize status, they may be treated highly by alphas and betas alike, treated as trophies rather than people, or treated lowly due to dated perceptions of status roles.

###  **What is heat?**

**Heat** is a state of heightened sexual (and often romantic) awareness. There are two types of heat: **full heat - aka estrus** , and **lesser heat** (or just simply heat) **\- aka**   **unproductive attraction**.

 **Unproductive Attraction:** All alphas and omegas experience unproductive attraction, as well as approximately 10% of betas (called sub-betas). It is characterized by racing pulse, thoughts, and breathing, as well as a fever, flush, and increased sexual attraction to the alpha and/or omega. The specific trigger for this form of heat is unclear, though it is thought to be **scent** and proximity based.

 **Estrus:** Approximately 25% of omegas experience estrus. It is a trimonthly, 5-7 day long phenomenon that typically begins starting in the omega’s adolescence (alongside the menstrual cycle in females) and continuing until the omega is no longer of breeding age. Estrus occurs roughly a week after the omega female’s menstrual cycle ends. In rare cases, it can also be triggered in similar situations to unproductive attraction. It is characterized by extremely heightened sexual desire, attraction to the omega’s mate if existent, or generalized attraction to alphas if not. Unresolved estrus can result in cardiovascular difficulties, as well as heightened sensitivity to touch. An alpha that is bonded to an omega that experiences estrus will experience estrus alongside the omega. Alpha estrus is similar, though is accompanied by increased aggression and territoriality towards other alphas.

###  **What is bonding?**

**Bonding** is a state of permanent pairing between an alpha and omega. Also known as **mating** , once the bond is created, the pair will no longer experience either form of heat towards outside individuals. An alpha will also begin to experience estrus if the bonded omega experiences estrus as well. The negative symptoms of either form of heat are also found to be lowered, as are the side effects of suppressants, if taken. Bonded pairs have a greatly heightened sensitivity to their partner’s scent, and when the omega is threatened, a bonded alpha can experience greatened emotional response and physical capabilities. Bonding is accomplished through the direct transfer of a mixing of an alpha’s saliva and an omega’s blood near a **scent gland**. The scent gland on the back of the neck is typically used for this purpose, as it is the strongest and largest gland. As a result, bonding using this location has the highest success rate.

###  **What are scent glands?**

**Scent glands** are small glands found under the skin in several locations of an individual’s body. The main scent gland is located on the back of the neck, with secondary glands behind the earlobes, under the jaw, on the upper thighs, on the front of the hips, on the lower back, and on the collarbones. Tertiary glands may be found elsewhere, and vary from person to person in their potency and location.

###  **What do scent glands do?**

**Scent glands** secrete an individual **pheromone scent** , thought to attract potential partners and trigger heats. Typically an alpha’s scent is musky, and the strongest of the castes when in heat. An omega’s scent is usually sweet, and less strong than an alpha’s, however an omega in estrus will secrete a scent that is far stronger than even a rutting alpha. Betas also secrete pheromones, though the scent is far milder and varies greatly. Sub-Betas have a scent that is stronger than normal betas, but weaker than omegas. **Suppressants** can stifle or remove an individual’s secretion of pheromones, as well as help to neutralize the effect of pheromones on them.

###  **What are suppressants?**

**Suppressants** are a form of drug intended to make heats more manageable for some individuals. They are still being tested, and as a result, come with inconclusive results and a variety of unpleasant side effects. Side effects are akin to those that come with post menstrual syndrome in addition to the itching of scent glands. Suppressants are only recommended for individuals who experience severe and hard to control unproductive attraction, and estrus-experiencing omegas. When used to combat estrus, it is recommended to begin taking suppressants 1-2 days before the expected heat, as taking suppressants after the heat has began will worsen side effects and may be ineffective. Taking suppressants for an estrus that has already begun will only lower the estrus to unproductive attraction for the duration of the cycle.


	2. and so you came along

By 7am, Myoui Mina was already at the front doors of Seoul Arts, Academy for Girls. While the first day of school didn’t officially start until 8:30, and classes at 9, Mina was a bit of an unusual case. At the end of the previous year, she was appointed to be a member of her class council. With that came certain responsibilities - cleaning the classroom, organizing events and fundraisers, and overseeing the general care of her graduating class. Mina had always been a bit of an overachiever, even skipping a grade during elementary school, so it was no surprise that her hard work and general popularity had led to such a role now.

Her task for this morning was simple: she and her fellow council members were to introduce themselves to their homeroom teacher for the year, help set up desks and other equipment, assist in directing students to their assigned lockers, and finally ensure that any transfer students in the class had their needs met. There typically weren’t many transfer students at Seoul Arts, class sizes were small as is and most students stayed at the Academy from freshman year until graduation. Mina didn’t expect this year to be any different.

The junior pushed open the doors to the school, seeing the front foyer was not much different than any other time she had seen it. It wasn’t big, but the ceilings were high and arched, giving it a sense of grandeur and elegance. Banners hung on the walls, welcoming students to a new year. An announcements board housed a map, directing freshmen and transfer students to their appropriate homerooms, as well as familiarizing them with the layout of the school.

Just beyond the foyer held the office, with a flight of stairs beside it leading to the level of the school where the classrooms were. The main floor otherwise housed the cafeteria, several computer rooms, the infirmary, and the majority of the elective rooms. Among these included a box theatre, dance hall, music room and accompanying practice rooms, and a studio for arts and design. Across the courtyard was the gymnasium, which contained a lap pool as well as an outdoor field where most events were held. While the school’s population wasn’t large, it was well funded and prestigious enough. To be appointed to the class council was an achievement that made Mina’s heart swell. She was proud to serve her classmates!

“Mina, you’re peacocking.” Mina startled out of her reverie, head snapping to the side in the direction of the voice. About two feet away, having just existed from the school office was junior class president Park Jihyo.

“I’m… what?” Mina muttered bewilderedly, getting her answer in the form of vice president Minatozaki Sana’s appearance from the office.

“You reek, Minari.”

The girl blinked at Sana. Had anyone else told her something so bluntly, Mina would’ve been quite offended. But Sana and Mina had been friends since they were kids, so she instantly knew the girl meant no offence. Rather, she and Jihyo were referring to the pheromones Mina was unknowingly pumping out in her pride and excitement for the new year. It was hard for Mina to smell herself, but she knew that to them, Mina’s scent had likely been strong enough to detect from inside the office.

Mina inhaled slowly, held the breath, and exhaled. “I’m really sorry, sometimes I get swept up and forget.”

Sana cracked a grin and rushed over to Mina, wrapping her in an enthusiastic side hug. “Happens to all of us, Mina-mi.”

Jihyo pursed her lips. “Well… not all of us. Anyways, Soonkyu Seonsaengnim says to let her know any time if you feel like you need suppressants.” Mina gaped.

“Eh? I don’t smell that bad do I?”

“A little,” Sana laughed, “but no not that bad. It’s just her job to offer and make sure all the students are okay. She’s an omega too after all, she knows how it is.”

Mina still flushed, doing her best to control her breathing and keep her pheromones in check. She shook her head. “Well I’m thankful, but don’t scare me like that!”

“Sorry.” Jihyo chuckled, “We should get up to the classroom though. Miyoung Gangsa is waiting. We’ll need to finish early, we have a transfer we have to show around.”

The three girls began to walk towards the stairwell. “That’s unusual. What’s her name?”

“Dunno yet!” Sana piped in as she climbed the stairs two at a time. “She was a late transfer so Soonkyu Saem hasn’t gotten a copy of her file from Wonjangnim yet. Miyoung-nim will have one, though.” Jihyo nodded as she held open the stairwell door for the two Japanese students.

“And remember what Soonkyu-nim said, Sana. No peeking at her caste - that’s private medical information, no matter how much you want another omega in the class.”

“But it suuucks being the only one!”

“Hey, quit forgetting me.”

“How could I, you smell like a cotton candy factory.” Sana playfully stuck her tongue out at a glowering Mina.

“End my suffering.” Jihyo exhaled. “Please knock it off, Miyoung-nim may know how ridiculous you can be, but her assistant is new. I’d rather not scare the TA off on the first day.” Sana pouted.

“Agreed, but Sana still started it.” Mina muttered.

“Hey!”

“Please shut up, we’re going in!” Jihyo silenced the two omegas, swinging open the door to the junior homeroom.

Desks lined the back of the room, stacked on trolleys brought in by the janitorial staff late last night. The floor shone, the whiteboards at the front spotless. In the corner of the room sat a desk already in proper position, a couple boxes halfway unpacked beside it. In front of the whiteboards sat a podium, Gangsa Miyoung perched on a stool just behind it organizing a stack of papers. Beside her stood a young woman with long red hair and bangs, mid-question as the trio entered.

“-would you like the pink teddy bear?”

“Ah, you can just put that in the side drawer Hani, thank you.” The teacher looked over at the entering students. “Good morning girls.” The class council bowed, greeting Miyoung as she then gestured to introduce them to the other woman. “This is Ahn Heeyeon, she will be assisting me in my teaching duties this year.”

The girls bowed again, the TA matching their bow with a blush. “Good morning, Ahn Heeyeon-nim.”

“You can just call me Hani, I don’t mind.” Miyoung smiled at that, chuckling lightly at the younger woman’s apparent bashfulness at the respectful address.

“By the time you girls finish setting up the desks and putting the trolleys away, we should be done organizing things here. The new student should be arriving shortly, so do try to hurry so she doesn’t end up having to help you with your work on the first day.” The last part was said with a teasing lilt, however only Sana treated it as the joke it was.

“Yes, Miyoung-nim!” Jihyo and Mina immediately set about unstacking the desks, Jihyo calling out towards Sana seeing that she was attempting to chat with Hani. “Sana-ya! Hurry up and start ordering these desks!” Sana blinked and turned, a small frown flickering over her features before she skipped over and got to work.

* * *

Twenty minutes later, the trolleys were unloaded and the desks nearly all set in their proper places. Mina pushed the last trolley out of the classroom and headed towards the janitorial closet. As she rounded the corner towards the stairwell, a sudden figure caused the girl to jump slightly. The figure also startled, letting out a none-too-quiet squeak.

Mina’s heart pounded as she blinked at the person who had startled her. She was a girl of around Mina’s age and height, her hair styled in a short black bob. The girl wore the school’s uniform without a blazer or tie, clutching onto her backpack nervously. Mina had never seen her before. Instinctively, Mina would’ve assumed the other girl was a freshman due to her demeanour, however seeing how early she was…

“Oh.” Mina shakily released the trolley, holding her hands at her side in order to bow. “Are you the transfer student?”

“Eh? Yes, how did you know?” The other girl’s eyes widened as she brought her hand up to her mouth. Mina couldn’t help but find the stranger’s expressiveness endearing.

“Ah, I’m on your class council, we’re supposed to show you around. My name’s Mina!” She breathed deeply, trying to keep her nervously racing heart at bay. The girl had startled her, and while normally that wouldn’t be a big deal, Mina was still dwelling over Jihyo and Sana’s comments on her smell earlier. Introducing herself as someone with so little control wouldn’t make a very good first impression.

“I’m Hirai Momo,” The girl nervously smiled, finally returning Mina’s bow. “Are you president?”

“Me? No, nothing like that, just secretary-treasurer.” Mina rolled Momo’s name over in her head a few times, committing it to memory. “Hirai, you’re Japanese?”

“Yes! I’m sorry if my Korean is bad.” Momo bit her lip, eyes widening again. Mina smiled widely, shaking her head in disagreement.

“You’re doing fine. I was asking because I am too.” She pointed at herself. “Myoui.”

“Myoui.” Momo repeated in a slightly dazed fashion, pointing at Mina. “Hirai.” Momo pointed at herself.

“Hirai.” Mina giggled. “Well come on Hirai, I have to return this and then we’ll go to our homeroom and introduce you to everyone.” Momo nodded eagerly, straightening her posture, and followed.

* * *

“Minatozaki Sana, nice to meet you!” Sana exclaimed excitedly, “I’ve been wanting another Japanese classmate. Hey, do you happen to be -”

“Sana-ssi, remember what Soonkyu-nim said.” Jihyo interrupted.

“No fun.” She pouted, to Momo’s befuddlement. Mina shook her head in amusement. It was pretty easy to guess anyways, Mina thought. Momo didn’t smell at all. Okay well, she smelt a little like peaches, but that could’ve just been her shampoo. And maybe normally it would’ve been weird to sniff somebody closely enough to smell their shampoo, but Sana wasn’t the only one who was curious.

Though… “I - I’m not a yakuza, if that’s what you’re suggesting. I promise.” …Betas weren’t normally this nervous.

“I don’t think she was going to ask you if you’re a yakuza, Momo.” Mina assured the other girl softly. Then again, Momo’s statement reminded Mina that stereotypes weren’t really something to operate by.

Jihyo slid the final desk into place with a triumphant exhale. “Miyoung-nim, we’re finished now!” The teacher glanced up from her desk, nearing complete organization.

“Very good, Jihyo. You and the others can show Momo around and help get her settled now, her locker information is in the same folder as the others’.” Jihyo nodded and fetched the folder, slipping it into her bag for later.

“Let’s go, then. Lead the way, Sana.” Excitedly, Sana grabbed Momo’s hand, pulling the blushing Japanese girl out of the room with no hesitation. Mina glanced at Jihyo, who raised an eyebrow. “She just really likes going first.”

As they exited the room, they saw that Sana was already halfway down the hallway gesturing wildly in every direction while Momo followed her spastic gestures to the best of her ability. The transfer student was still blushing, a condition that worsened when Sana suddenly pulled her in for a hug.

“You’re going to scar her for life, Sana.”

“No I’m not, everyone loves my hugs. Don’t you love my hugs, Momo?” Sana squeezed the other girl’s waist, looking at her with her best puppy dog eyes. The black-haired girl bit her lip and cast her eyes to the floor.

“I can think of at least three worse things?”

Sana gasped, “Name them.”

“Um... Allergies. Water. Boys.” Momo offered. Each of the council members reacted differently.

“Allergies?” Jihyo questioned gently, tilting her head.

“Boys?” Sana questioned curiously, a slow grin spreading across her face. 

“Water!?” Mina exclaimed bewilderedly, struggling to make sense of the statement. Maybe she couldn't swim?

Momo nodded, answering only Jihyo. “I’m allergic to dogs, but I love them. Why would life torture me like that?”

“Since you’re allergic to my affection too, does that mean you love me?” Sana hugged her new classmate tighter, beamily cheesily at her. 

“Sana! Stop flirting with girls you just met!” Jihyo stepped forward, struggling to pull the clingy girl off of a flustered Momo. 

“But she doesn’t like boys anyways! Momo, let’s go on a date.” 

Momo blinked in shock at the forward omega. Her voice wavered, taking on its previous nervous quality. “Eh!? I-I didn’t anticipate being confessed to today.”

Mina stood several paces to the side of the warring group, ignoring the typical debacle. “...a hydrophobe…?” Mina mumbled to herself.

It was going to be a long day.


	3. to fill the empty

As it turned out, Sana had decided that the best way to introduce Momo to the academy was to tell her about the time in freshman year when a group of locusts had somehow gotten into the ventilation systems. When the AC had kicked in, the locusts flew into the halls to the horror of the entire school. Sana had found it hilarious. Sadly, Momo had told her that she used to hate the sound of locusts, but now they made her miss Japan. Sana’s innocent hug of comfort and empathy had then turned into the ensuing chaotic argument about Sana’s flirting habits.

By the time the argument was over, Momo was flushed an even deeper red than at the start, her stuttering worsening. Mina was confused. She had never seen someone that wasn’t an omega get this way, yet Momo produced no pheromone scent even after Sana declared she would win her heart, and the transfer student nearly choked on her own saliva.

After that, Jihyo declared Sana wasn’t allowed to walk next to Momo so she couldn’t keep trying to initiate skinship. So Mina walked between them, with Jihyo guiding them ahead and introducing Momo to different parts of the school and faculty members they crossed paths with. It took awhile, but the black haired girl eventually returned to a normal colouration and was able to speak in full sentences again.

“And these are the practice rooms! There’s four big ones - one for each grade - and two smaller ones for individual usage. If you need to rent out any of them, Taeyeon-nim and Hyoyeon-nim are in charge of scheduling. They also offer private lessons during and after school hours.” Jihyo opened the door to one of the large practice rooms, revealing a wall of mirrors and a few instruments in the corner.

“They’re multipurpose, so no matter what your focus is you can use them. Most students utilize them for dancing or singing, but some students book them to practice acting out scenes or for writing in private.” Mina added helpfully.

“Just no painting in them, I… ruined the floor with Vantablack one time.” Sana rubbed the back of her neck bashfully, the faint scent of rose rising up around her. Momo smiled shyly.

“No danger of that… I’m really only here to dance.”

At this, they all blinked in surprise. Now that it was mentioned, Mina noticed that Momo certainly had the physique of a dancer, but with how timid she was she would have guessed Momo was a writer or painter. “Me too, what’s your speciality?”

Momo made firm eye contact with Mina for the first time since their initial introduction. “Hip-hop.” It almost sounded like a joke, but for once Momo didn’t smile nervously or waver.

“Oh. I’m ballet.” Mina ducked her head, blushing. She waited for the inevitable reaction everyone had.

“I can tell.” There it was. Mina smiled to herself.

“Right? Just look at her posture, it’s like she’s never slouched a day in her life!” Sana exclaimed, grabbing onto Mina’s perfectly parallel shoulders for emphasis. “I think she sleeps strapped to a board.”

“I do not!”

“I dunno, I think Sana could be right.” Momo added to the teasing. Mina knew she was breathing hard, and again tried to calm herself. The flustered omega swallowed hard, opting not to argue further. Jihyo smiled knowingly, and nodded her approval. Another cotton candy catastrophe averted.

“Well all that’s left is the office, you haven’t met Soonkyu Seonsaengnim yet, have you?” The class president questioned.

“No, I haven’t.”

The girls trailed behind Jihyo back towards the front foyer of the school. “She’s the academy’s counsellor, and acts as nurse when it comes to caste issues. If anyone has difficulties while on campus, she’s the first one to find out and the first one to extend a helping hand.”

“Yeah, like in freshman year when Mina went into her first heat in the middle of gym class. Half the grade ended up going into a frenzy!” Sana cackled, clapping Mina on the back.

“It wasn’t my fault! I was a late bloomer so my parents just thought I was a beta.” Mina squeezed her eyes shut at the embarrassing memory, willing away the recollection of how rank the gym had smelt for the rest of the week while the pheromones of two dozen students cleared out. Suddenly she felt her hand being gently squeezed, opening her eyes to see Momo giving her a sympathetic smile. The omega faltered at the unexpected physical comfort.

“Of course it wasn’t Minari, but it was still funny. Yuri Seonsaengnim had to throw Jeongyeon-ssi and Jennie-ssi into the pool so they’d cool down and wouldn’t end up killing each other.”

“Jeongyeon does still look at you like she’s seen a ghost, Mina.” Jihyo’s quiet addition just made Mina more frazzled, remembering how for an entire term after the incident, the older girl couldn’t even look at Mina without having to excuse herself to see Soonkyu-nim. And even that was with half their class on mandatory half-strength suppressants.

“Please don’t remind me. I hate having alphas in our class. You can’t make any mistakes or suddenly things get tense and awkward for ages.” Mina felt Momo’s grip on her hand loosen, falling back to their respective sides.

“You know that’s not their fault any more than going into heat randomly is yours, Mina.” Jihyo gently chided, noting how Momo, previously listening intently, had cast her gaze to the side distractedly.

“I know unnie, I’m sorry. I just get frustrated, things are so much more complicated for me and Sana than it is for you guys.” Sana wrapped an arm around Mina’s waist, nuzzling her cheek softly. While smaller caste incidents were not uncommon in schools and workplaces, Mina had especially struggled with the sudden and belated realization of her omega status, combined with her tendency to show her emotions easily and openly. She still often complained about how much easier her life would be if she had just been a beta like her parents thought.

“We’re all here for you, Minari. You’ll get used to it, even if it takes you a little longer than most of us.” Sana’s gentle encouragement reassured the other girl, even though a little voice in the back of her mind told her it probably wouldn’t be so simple.

“Anyways Momo, I think Sana’s point was that Soonkyu-nim is used to dealing with all sorts of embarrassing situations and will do her best to resolve any issues you may face. She doesn’t usually like giving students suppressants either, but that option is also open when the need arises.” The transfer student finally raised her gaze back from the floor, nodding to show she understood.

“Thank you, Jihyo-ssi.”

“Ah, here we are.” Jihyo opened the door to the office, giving a bow to the secretary, Seo Hyerin, as they entered. “Soonkyu-nim will probably want to talk to you for a little while privately, Momo. Just about any special requirements you have, your caste, that sort of thing. Will you be okay finding your way back to the classroom?” Momo nodded. Jihyo beamed, fishing Momo’s locker information out of the class folder and handing it to her. “Great! Here’s your locker number and combination. Mina and I will be just outside directing the other students if you need any help finding it.”

“And I’ll be helping Hani set up for the introductory lecture.” Sana grinned widely.

“Please don’t flirt with our TA.” Mina sighed.

“It’s not flirting, it’s selective over-friendliness.” The vice president skipped to the door, offering a little wave to the others before setting off. Mina and Jihyo shook their heads in disbelief. With a final farewell to Momo, they followed Sana out into the foyer, leaving her alone to talk to the counsellor.

* * *

“Good morning Sooyoung-ssi, your locker assignment is in the east wing across from our classroom. Number 107, here is your combination.” Mina bowed to the taller girl, offering her a copy of the paper.

“We’ve been in the same class for three years here, and two in middle school before that, Mina. You can call me Joy.” She laughed, returning the bow and taking the copy thankfully. “I promise I won’t bite.”

“Sorry Joy. It’s just always weird since--”

“Alpha,” Sooyoung pointed at herself, “and omega.” She then gestured to Mina. The action reminded the girl of her initial meeting with Momo. “It’s against your nature, I know.” The alpha smiled gently at the vice president, who returned it nervously. “Have strength, Myoui Mina-ssi.” As Mina winced at the honorific, Sooyoung chuckled again. “See? You don’t like it either. I’ll see you in class.” The girl departed with a wink, leading Mina to bow instinctively again.

Alphas. They freaked Mina out.

“...Mina-ya?” Mina turned her head to the call, being greeted by the sight of Momo staring down at the floor holding a piece of paper shakily in her grip. The informal greeting eased her sense of unease.

“How can I help you, Momo?”

“I uh, I found my locker.”

“Oh, good!”

“I can’t open it.” Momo muttered so softly it rivaled even Mina’s gentleness.

“Eh? Is the combination wrong?” Mina reached for the paper, staring at it.

“No. W-well maybe, I don’t know.” The transfer student suddenly stepped closer to speak even more quietly. “I can’t read it.”

“You can’t… read it?”

“The numbers are written in Hangul. They’re too big. I can read smaller numbers but all of these… Ah, it’s embarrassing.” Momo’s skin was glowing near-crimson, so Mina reached out to give her hand a squeeze.

“No it’s not, don’t worry about it. You probably didn’t learn to read them all in Hangul since you’re used to numerals, right?” Momo nodded. “Come on, I’ll take you to your locker and we’ll open it together. I’ll write down the numeral combination for you, too.” Mina’s gentle smile and tone was enough to encourage Momo to make eye contact again. The girls linked hands, strolling off to find the offending locker.

* * *

“So the default combination is 489018.” Mina instructed, popping open the lock and swinging the locker open. “If you want a new combination, after it’s opened, you can just take this little key,” Mina reached onto the top shelf of the locker, fishing down the small metal tool, “and insert it into the lock. Turn the key, set the dials to whatever six-digit number you want, remove the key, and then re-lock it.” Mina turned and handed the lock and key to Momo, who stood watching in rapt attention.

“I can set it to whatever I want?”

“Whatever you want.”

“123456?”

“Eh. Maybe not that.” Mina giggled easily, her laughter joining with Momo’s.

“Okay, I got it. Thank you, Minari.” The younger girl grinned at the nickname. It was a name Sana had given to her years ago when they were kids, and while Mina didn’t mind other people calling her by it, no one she had met in Korea seemed to be able to say the nickname with the same brightness and charm as Sana. However, it sounded right at home coming out of Momo’s mouth.

“You’re very welcome, Momoring. Shall we go to class now?” The new girl nodded, looping her arm through Mina’s eagerly. Side by side, they walked down the now-busy hallway, a look of warmth and peace on Momo’s face that Mina never wanted to leave.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'll be cross-posting this on AFF with updates probably hitting there first. Not sure yet what my update schedule will be like, but I'm hoping for around ~5k/week, with larger chapters obviously being uploaded slower than shorter ones.
> 
> Criticism very welcome, I've been out of the writing game for quite a while and this is my first foray into Omegaverse.


	4. corners of my

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I only edited about half of this because I was tired of looking at it. I don't know how people manage to beta their own work without dying inside.

“Where’d you go to earlier? I finished up locker assignments and you were nowhere to be found.” Jihyo whispered across the aisle at Mina. She had entered the room with Momo, but before Mina could invite the girl to sit next to her, Miyoung had stopped them to talk with the new student.

“Ah, Momo was having some difficulties so I went to help her. I’m sorry for not telling you before I went, Seonbae.” Mina ducked her head in apology.

“No need for that, Mina. I’m not upset, I was just surprised you disappeared that’s all.” Jihyo smiled at her friend. As Sana took a seat in front of Mina, both girls greeted her quietly.

“Guess who’s helping Hani write out lesson plans after school.” Sana sing-songed, fluttering her eyelashes and smiling in a way that left no need for guesses. “She smells so pretty, what perfume do you think she uses?”

“I told you not to flirt with her!” Jihyo reached across the aisle to gently slap Sana’s shoulder. “It’s inappropriate when you flirt with people as is, but this is taking it to a new level.”

Sana clicked her tongue, “Aish, don’t worry. I’m joking, mostly. Besides, she has a girlfriend - a composer. They both used to go to school here, we should see if we can find their pictures in the old yearbooks!”

“You found out all that?” Mina ventured skeptically. “And she didn’t tell you off?”

“Yep! Her caste too!” Sana flipped around in her desk to face Mina and grinned. She mouthed the next word in an exaggerated fashion. Omega! She gave two thumbs up. “We’re not alone anymore!”

Jihyo was cut off before she could respond about the improperness of asking an elder such a thing. “Settle down please girls.” Miyoung took a seat at the podium at the front of the room, flashing Sana, in particular, a careful look. “As you’re all aware, we have some introductions in order. Two, to be exact. First of all, I’d like you all to welcome my assistant for the year, Ahn Heeyeon.” The woman gestured towards the TA who rose from the desk.

“Hello everyone, you can just call me Hani. It’s my pleasure to help teach you all this year. If anyone has any difficulties with coursework or has a personal issue we can help with, my office hours are from 4:30 to 7, Monday to Friday, and Saturday from 2 to 5.” The redhead finished her introductory statement with a bow and wide smile.

“Now then, on to our new student. Hirai Momo, if you will.” Miyoung smiled warmly at the nervous girl who stood beside her. Mina too, smiled at Momo, hoping the gesture would give the other girl some modicum of strength. Momo returned it with a grin of her own, bowing lowly with her hands clasped in front of her over her stomach.

“Good morning, my name is Momo. I’ve come to study from Kyoto, so please take good care of me!” She gave the greeting smoothly as if she had rehearsed it several times in preparation for this. With that, she turned to Miyoung expectantly, silently asking for permission to sit.

“One last thing, please tell the class your specialization, and how long you’ve been studying!”

“Oh. I’m a dancer… specializing in hip-hop.” At this, there were a few stifled giggles from the back. Mina understood the feeling of not quite knowing if Momo was serious until you saw the fire in her eyes. “I’ve been training now for almost ten years.”

“Very good, Momo. You may be seated.” Momo bowed to Miyoung and looked now at the room. There were a couple empty desks still - Jennie and Yerin were out on vacation until midway through the week. Despite looking somewhat confident during her introduction, Momo now showed her nerves plainly. Mina made steady eye contact with her and tilted her head towards her side. Right beside Mina and behind Jihyo’s desk was a spot kept open just for Momo. Still unsure, the Japanese student pointed at herself to confirm. Mina nodded. Grinning ear to ear, Momo walked hurriedly towards the desk and slumped into it.

Mina took this moment to look closely at her new classmate. Momo was breathing deeply in the same way that Mina did when she was having trouble containing her pheromones. Momo turned her head, meeting Mina’s steady gaze. A slight blush covered Momo’s neck, climbing slightly higher as Mina stared, but came nowhere close to the crimson tone that she had witnessed before. The girl’s brown eyes shone curiously at Mina as she nervously bit down on her lower lip. She began to duck her head in embarrassment when Mina suddenly reached across the distance between their desks, squeezing Momo’s hand gently.

“You did well, Momoring.” As Mina dropped their linked hands, she noted Momo’s blush deepen. Inhaling deeply, Mina smelt only the barest hint of peaches.

* * *

Their morning classes breezed by quickly and without major incident. Though Sana was just as capable of translation duty, Mina took it upon herself to answer any questions Momo had during the lessons. Initially the girl was silent, however eventually one small question she asked about the meaning of a word became many small, frequent questions. Midway through their first Korean lesson of the year, Momo nearly fell out of her desk while leaning over to look at Mina’s notes. Hani had to cover her mouth to suppress a laugh. Miyoung herself had trouble keeping a straight face, chiding Momo’s carelessness gently and giving them permission to simply slide their desks together permanently.

From then on, Mina rested her notebook between them, easily writing translations in the margins of her notes whenever Momo pointed out a word. Occasionally, Momo would reach over and excitedly write a translation herself when she managed to figure out a word herself. Her pride was endearing, though by how quickly she was already learning from the lesson, Mina felt disappointed that their shared desk situation likely wouldn’t last longer than a few weeks.

As their morning break was called, a few girls approached Momo curiously to introduce themselves, as well as get a better idea of what the new girl was like. Most left in disappointment after a few short courtesies upon seeing how withdrawn Momo was, expecting the dancer to be more outgoing based on her introduction. However, that didn’t dishearten some of the resident alphas. Sooyoung and Chungha had approached to introduce themselves but hit the same brick wall as the others. Chungha hummed in discontent and stared hard at Momo, who nervously glanced at Mina, who shot a worried look at Sooyoung, who just smiled and said, “Interesting”. The two alphas then left, leaving the class council and Momo all equally confused.

Despite her social progress with the class moving at a snail’s pace, Momo really didn’t seem to mind. As their lunch period began, she chatted amicably with Sana, calm and even energetic despite Sana’s earlier flirtationship. They got along easily, and Momo seemed more at ease around Jihyo now. But then a cog was thrown into the machine.

“Class council members, if you three could stay behind for a moment so we can discuss the spring showcase.”

Mina winced. Momo’s first lunch period at the school, and it looked like she would be spending it alone.

* * *

There were only ten minutes left of their lunch period by the time the three council members finally walked into the cafeteria. Mina searched for Momo, feeling strangely protective of her new friend. The cafeteria was packed; the lunch line empty. Sana tapped on her shoulder.

“Mitang, there.” She tilted her chin, indicating the very back corner of the room. Mina and Jihyo followed Sana’s gaze, landing upon Momo happily eating in a small group. It would’ve been a brilliant sight if not for one unfortunate occupant. Mina and Jihyo both winced.

“Oh god,” Mina whined.

“That’s going to be difficult.” Jihyo agreed, moving to the lunch line. “Sorry, Mina.”

“You’re fucked. See you in class!” Sana patted her on the shoulder and followed Jihyo.

Momo’s company wasn’t exactly bad. She sat beside Kim Dahyun, a sophomore with the reputation of being one of the kindest girls in the Academy, and two peppy freshmen Mina had helped this morning - one of which was also a foreigner. However, the final occupant was the one that caused things to be uncomfortable for Mina. Im Nayeon sat across from Momo, laughing joyfully in a way that made Mina’s pulse quicken in trepidation. This would be incredibly painful. It might just be easier for everyone involved if Mina just pretended she didn’t see Momo, return to the classroom, and then -

Momo noticed Mina and waved enthusiastically. Four more sets of eyes landed on her. Nayeon’s turned cold, the grin slipping rapidly from her face.

\- nevermind.

Mina forced an apprehensive smile, approaching as naturally as she could muster. She bowed to the occupants of the table, a gesture returned by the freshmen and sophomore. Nayeon stared blankly at Mina.

“Minari! You’re here! This is Chaeyoung, Tzuyu, Dahyun, and -”

“We’ve met.” Nayeon’s expression was stoic.

“Uh, so have we! Mina is a good Seonbae.” Dahyun added cheerfully, trying to cut the tension that Momo was mercifully oblivious to. The scent of cinnamon rose from Nayeon, earning the curious attention of nearby tables. The freshmen exchanged a brief look of panic.

“Thank you Dahyun. It’s nice to meet you Chaeyoung and Tzuyu, I hope your experience so far has been good.” The young girls nodded silently. Mina’s heart hammered. She breathed hard, smelling a flowery scent emanating from one of the freshmen. An alpha? An omega? It didn’t matter; if this didn’t end soon things would turn from awkward to potentially dangerous.

“Don’t worry, Myoui-ssi, I’ve been taking good care of them.” Mina and the Korean natives at the table winced. “As Momo tells me you’ve been taking good care of her.” Nayeon grinned coldly.

Mina laughed uncomfortably. “I’ve been doing my best, though I’m sure eventually she’ll have a language question I can’t answer. At least for that, there’s -”

“-Jihyo. How is she these days?” Nayeon’s grin fell some, a soft sadness filling her gaze.

“She’s well. I don’t think she expected being elected president but she’s been serving her role well, so far.” Mina answered quietly, hoping that this could put an end to the encounter. “Though you could always ask her yourself.”

“So you say.” As quickly as the vulnerability came across Nayeon’s face, it was gone, once more replaced by that false smile. Momo finally seemed to notice something amiss in the interaction between the two, looking bewilderedly between them. How she couldn’t smell the three distinct pheromone scents coming from the table was a mystery - at this point, the entire cafeteria was staring. Dahyun offered Momo a tense smile. “Class starts up again soon. I should be going. It was nice meeting you all. I’ll see you tomorrow Dahyun.” With that, Nayeon discarded her tray and left.

A shaky breath left the table simultaneously. The cafeteria, once sitting in rapt attention, quickly dissolved back into its normal chatter as the scent of cinnamon dispersed. Momo still looked completely lost as she rose from the table to link arms with Mina. At the bell’s ring, the juniors left the lunchroom, Mina all too eager to escape the awkward atmosphere.

“What was _that_?” Chaeyoung wrinkled her nose up.

“Terrible, that’s what,” Tzuyu answered.

“I don’t even know, and I think it’s best that it stays that way.” The other two girls nodded, agreeing the Dahyun’s statement wholeheartedly. Maybe tomorrow they’d eat together, just the three of them.

* * *

By the time Sana and Jihyo entered the classroom, Momo seemed to have all but forgotten the encounter in the cafeteria, staring in rapt attention at her timetable. The other council members didn’t need to ask how things went, nearly everyone in the school already knew about the ordeal. With pheromones rising at any kind of emotional display, it was impossible for an omega or alpha to keep any confrontation a secret.

“You’re so lucky,” Mina mumbled enviously.

“I know.” Jihyo smiled sympathetically.

“What does any of this mean?” Momo cried, nearly crumpling the timetable in her grip. Sana laughed, their shared misfortune forgotten.

“Mina, you didn’t go over that with her during morning break?”

“How could I have, you were too busy chatting Momo’s ear off!” Mina huffed and gently reached for the abused piece of paper. “Let me see, Momoring.” She glanced at it, being greeted by a massive block of purple and pink. A smile crept across her face. This schedule was incredible.

"Why is everything broken up into different chunks? Why are some of them purple and some of them pink when they all say the same thing?" The questions came out of Momo's mouth in a panicked rush. Mina carefully covered Momo's hands with one of her own.

"They're in different blocks even though they're the same class because not everyone takes three hours of dance straight, Momo." Mina giggled.

"WHAT?" Sana exclaimed. "THREE HOURS? I can barely do one before Hyoyeon-nim's routines make my legs feel like falling off."

"Don't you also have three straight blocks of dance, Mina?" Jihyo questioned.

The girl hummed. "Yeah, but only on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The other three days I only do one hour instead of two like Momo."

"YOU TOO?" Sana shouted openly. Miyoung yelled at the exasperated girl to quiet down while she took attendance. Once Sana had settled down, she continued in a softer, yet still exasperated tone. "You guys don't even take off days?"

"Every day is leg day when you're a dancer." Momo declared seriously. She then turned to her desk partner and asked happily, "We have dance class together, Mina?"

"Mhm. Sana too, on Tuesday and Thursday. The main classes are pretty big because they're shared with the rest of the grades, but AP dance is only a few people. Those are the pink blocks. I have theatre last block on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday though." She explained carefully, gesturing to the corresponding areas on Momo's timetable.

"Acting?" Momo asked, curious.

"Not quite. That's what most people take it for, yes, but for me, it's because of the performance aspect of ballet." Mina handed the schedule back. "We all have gym up next, though. You'll like Yuri Seonsaengnim, she used to be a dancer too."

"Eh? Why not anymore?"

"She tore her ACL... twice," Jihyo said solemnly. "She still dances, just not professionally because of how much strain it puts on her. "But she helps teach AP dance with Hyoyeon, so you'll be seeing lots of her."

"She's the only alpha Mina's ever liked," Sana added teasingly. "But that's only 'cause she's mated."

"It's not _only_ because she's mated," Mina stressed, flushing slightly.

"Oh right, also because she dragged two raging alphas off of you."

"Stop bringing it up!" Sana poked her tongue out at Mina, relishing in the sweet scent rising off of the girl's neck. Fortunately, the bell stopped any further teasing from starting.

"Off to your specializations now. Hani and I will see you all back here tomorrow. Be sure to review your course syllabus tonight!" Miyoung called out as the junior class emerged from their desks and proceeded towards the door. The class council and Momo were the final ones to leave, but not before bidding a quiet farewell to their teachers.

* * *

_Mina and Momo's schedules can be found[here](https://www.asianfanfics.com/album/user/1128118) in my AFF gallery if you're interested in the details. Sana's right, Momo dances a lot._


	5. broken beating heart

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mild trigger warning ahead here - nothing much happens in terms of detail, but it's always better safe than sorry.

As the flock of juniors arrived across campus at the gymnasium, Momo stared befuddled as Jihyo and the rest of the class began walking one way, and the other Japanese girls began walking the other.

“Where are you going? I thought we all had gym together!” She rushed over to the other two, clinging to Mina’s arm and staring at Sana with wide eyes. Jihyo followed reluctantly, not wanting to be late.

“We do. The main changeroom is over there, and the omega changeroom is on this side,” Sana gestured behind the building to what looked at one time to be a shed. “Say Momo, are you an omega too?” She winked playfully.

“Eh!? They separate you by caste here? Isn’t that illegal?” Momo was too taken aback by the policy to respond to Sana’s attempt at flirtation.

“Not quite,” Sana answered, “But it didn’t use to be this way. There was only the main change room, the smaller one was only used by anyone in estrus. But,” She looked at Mina. “I know you want me to stop bringing it up, so…”

Mina sighed and explained herself. “When I erm, came into heat in freshman year, Wonjangnim changed it so that all omegas were separated to prevent further incidents. Soonkyu-nim tried to fight it for us, but for insurance purposes the situation couldn’t be avoided.”

Momo’s jaw dropped slightly in surprise. “So omegas are never allowed to use the main changeroom?”

“Only if we take suppressants,” The omega shrugged. “But neither of us are going to. Sana doesn’t care enough about it -”

“Plus we get more hot water in the omega changeroom!” Sana exclaimed.

“- and I’ve always been opposed to taking suppressants. Everyone acts like it’s not a big deal, but it is. The side effects, plus you don’t have the same emotions, you don’t act the same. It’s like changing who you are.” Mina frowned. “The ones they made me take back then were bad enough, and they weren’t even full strength.”

Momo dropped her hold on Mina’s arm, gazing sadly at the younger girl. Sana and Jihyo moved away slightly to give the two a degree of privacy. “I’m so sorry, Minari.” Mina shook her head, a thought suddenly occurring to Momo. “Hey, could others use the omega changeroom if they wanted to?”

“Eh? Well, I suppose.” Mina thought. “Sub-betas follow the same rules as omegas, so they have to as well unless they’re suppressed. Other betas should be able to go wherever they wanted to if they got permission, but nobody really bothers because everyone sees it as a punishment. Alphas wouldn’t be able to though, otherwise they’d still just want to suppress us omegas…”

“Unless the alpha was suppressed,” Jihyo added from a distance. Mina scoffed.

“Yeah, but no one would ever do that. Alphas could all choose to take suppressants instead of forcing omegas to, but that would require them going through discomfort. They’re just too selfish.” She shook her head.

“Not all,” Jihyo interjected. “Look at Yuri - she took suppressants for her partner even before they bonded.”

“Well, most of them. And all of the ones our age.” Mina corrected herself.

“Maybe. But maybe not…” Jihyo mumbled, out of earshot. Sana looked at her curiously. “Listen, we need to get changed or Yuri is going to give us all detention.”

“Right.” Mina nodded. “Go with Jihyo, Momo.”

“Unless you’ve decided you’re an omega, in which case, welcome to the party, Momo!” Sana cheered. Momo pouted and shook her head, following Jihyo as instructed. “Dang. Well, at least there’s Hani.”

Mina sighed, dragging Sana along into the shed-turned-changeroom. It was cramped, with only five lockers, a single bench, and one small shower room fitted into the space. Thankfully Mina always had dance after gym, so there was little point in showering. If she did need to, she could head to the shower adjoining the dance hall after class, and completely avoid the need to awkwardly share with Sana. Not that the snake would mind, in fact, more often than not Sana tried to convince Mina to join her, ‘just this once!’.

Mina shoved her bag into the locker, not even bothering to actually lock it. Nobody came in here. She was pretty sure there were less than a dozen omega students at the school. As a caste, they may make up a fifth of the population, but situations like this led to the actual number of them in private institutions being much, much lower. Why on earth would omegas need to go to school or work anyways, weren’t they all just destined to be arm candy for some alpha eventually?

Mina grit her teeth as she worked her shirt over her head. It was carelessly thrown onto the bench alongside her skirt as she walked over to the two prepared gym uniforms hanging from the bathroom door. A note was posted on the door above them, written in blue ink.

**_For Mina and Sana -_ **

**_I’m sorry for the situation, please have strength. Soonkyu, Yoona, and I are all still trying to have this verdict repealed. Let’s try to have a good year!_ **

**_Fighting!_ **

**_Yuri_ **

Mina smiled wryly, shaking her head as she took one of the uniforms. She handed the other, along with the note, to Sana. The other girl read the note quizzically before herself giggling.

“They’re cute.”

“Yuri-nim and Yoona-nim? Yeah.” Mina agreed. The two made up a bonded pair - Yoona, the freshman homeroom teacher, had faced a lot of difficulties early in her career due to being an estrus omega. While Yuri and Yoona had bonded a couple years before the Japanese students had started at the academy, Yoona was quite open about her prior struggles. When they had been freshmen, the teacher had taken great care to look after Sana, and after Mina’s incident extended even greater care towards the newly discovered omega. She reassured her that nothing had been her fault, and fought on her behalf with Soonkyu when the headmaster wanted to put Mina on suppressants permanently.

Despite being an alpha, Yuri was just as sympathetic towards her omega students as her mate was, perhaps understanding how it felt more clearly herself due to having to take suppressants alongside Yoona every three months. Whatever the reason, having the support of three major faculty members made things bearable even when Mina felt like it would be easier just to take the suppressants and keep quiet.

Mina finished changing quickly, turning back to Sana to see she was still just as shirtless as a moment ago. “Sanaaa-ya, hurry up!”

“I’m trying, I swear my chest got bigger over the summer.” Sana pulled the shirt over her head, seeming to struggle for a moment with pulling it down.

“Oh my god. Just put it on, you can ask Yuri for a larger size after we get inside the gym so we don’t get scolded and die.”

Sana blinked at the exasperated omega before pulling the shirt down easily. “Wow, okay. I was just joking to make you laugh and cheer you up a little, but I’m glad you thought that lie was believable.”

Mina squeezed her eyes shut and left the changeroom. “I hate you sometimes.”

“Saranghae, Mitang,” Sana called.

* * *

Somehow, the Japanese students weren’t entirely late. Though still late by normal standards, it turned out that Chanmi had somehow managed to lock the door to the main changeroom from the outside, effectively holding a quarter of the class hostage while Yuri left to get the key to free the students. Judging by the group already standing in the gym, Jihyo and Momo had both been among the unlucky locked-in members.

Once the half-dozen students were released, Momo came rushing towards her friends, dragging Jihyo behind her. “It was scary, Jeongyeon kept looking at me weirdly. Right Jihyo?”

“She was acting a little strange,” the class president confirmed.

With that, Yuri set the class off to run twenty laps in a fraction of the typically allotted time. “Sorry, I can’t cut the rest of the class down any to make up for the delay. If you don’t finish, don’t worry about the consequence this time!”

“The consequence?” Momo asked Jihyo.

“Taking home the class’ uniforms to wash.”

“Oh, gross.”

Despite the lowered time, a few members of the class still managed to complete their laps. Momo was numbered among them, along with Jeongyeon, Chunga, and Chanmi. Mina was only half a lap off of finishing, with the rest of the class varying degrees behind. Sana was still on her fifteenth lap when she came to a stop, huffing. “Yah, I’m not a distance runner, let alone a FAST distance runner!”

“Good job girls,” Yuri congratulated the successful runners. “Especially you, Momo. Good effort to the rest, you all were on pace to complete, had we started at the normal time. Now, who’s ready for basketball drills?”

The remainder of the hour was spent practicing their various basketball skills. While Momo had seemed to be a capable athlete otherwise, she quickly proved that her clumsiness and hand-eye coordination were on par with Sana - who was also a decent athlete, just not at most sports. Yuri’s careful gaze lingered over her new student, always prepared to bust out the first aid kit after the first time Momo tripped while dribbling.

Despite seeming nearly as hopelessly uncoordinated as Sana, Yuri never stopped encouraging the pair. When Momo failed a lay-up terribly or missed a three-point shot by a mile, Mina went to reassure the other girl. Every so often, when that occurred, Yuri would catch Mina’s eye and give her a knowing smile. And then she would turn around and resume shouting out words of advice to her other students.

Yeah, Yuri was Mina’s favourite teacher for a reason.

* * *

Momo agreed to meet Mina and Sana just outside the omega changeroom after she finished showering so they could all walk to Hyoyeon’s class together. As they entered the renovated shed, however, Mina came to a horrifying realization. This meant she’d have to shower with Sana for once. They’d done so before when they were younger, but never since entering high school.

Seeming to sense Mina’s conclusion, Sana gently broke the other girl’s mortification. “I won’t actually like, snake on you or anything. I won’t even look at you or come to your side. Promise.”

Mina sighed thankfully. “That’s not really what I was worried about anyways, but thank you.” She pulled her sweat-soaked uniform off, throwing it into the designated washbasket.

“What are you always so concerned about, then?” Sana questioned, glancing at Mina through her periphery.

“I just haven’t really been fully undressed around anyone since - you know.” She shook her head. “I know it’s dumb, but it just sits there in the back of my mind. If anything ever happens, it’s my fault, isn’t it?”

“That’s not true, even if that’s how Wonjangnim acts.”

“It’s not just the Academy, though.” Mina shed her undergarments, walking towards the showers. She opened the door, moving towards the corner where two of the showerheads were located. Sana wasn’t far behind her.

“Here, you don’t have any shampoo or body wash, do you?” The older girl placed her bottles where Mina could reach. She carefully avoided looking in Mina’s direction as they turned the water on. Sana was right, the water was hot here, whereas in the other changeroom it would be lukewarm at best. It felt like a baptism by fire. “It’s never going to be your fault, Mina. No matter what happens.”

“If not mine, then whose? You say it’s not the omegas’ faults, Jihyo says it's not the alphas’ faults, but when people get assaulted because of something as stupid as how someone smells, who’s to blame?” Mina’s voice wavered on the edge of cracking. “And if not me, then why am I the one punished when I’m the one who was hurt?”

Sana turned carefully and looked at Mina. She said she wouldn’t, but some things came before keeping your word. She approached the fellow omega, who turned to face Sana fully. Mina’s eyes were red, but with the steaming water, it would be easy for anyone to miss that Mina was crying.

But Sana wasn’t just anyone. Ignoring the otherwise awkward action, she hugged Mina close, stroking her hair as the girl let out her tears. “Just let it out, Minari. Take all the time you need; I’ll wash your hair for you.”

“Thank you, Sana.” Mina sniffled miserably, face pressed into the older girl’s neck.

“Of course. After all, what are friends for?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And so things get a little darker. This is ultimately meant to be a fluffy sort of fic, but I'd be remiss if I didn't address some of the more serious problems with a universe where everyone is so heavily driven by hormones and the entire population is broken up into castes. If you're still not sure what's going on, don't worry - we'll come back around to it eventually. But more soft times ahead, first!


	6. this familiar feeling

 

Momo hadn’t been waiting long when the other two Japanese students emerged from their personal changeroom. Sana had assured Mina multiple times that despite her thoughts to the contrary, no one would be able to tell that she had cried. The only thing that might be suspect was that Mina smelled a lot like Sana as a result of their shower proximity and shared shampoo. But that wasn’t so awful a fate, and regardless, Momo seemed completely oblivious to anything smell-related.

Even with Sana’s reassurances, Mina had trouble meeting Momo’s gaze fully. Her shyness must have been noticed in some respect, as soon Momo reached for her hand. The action would have embarrassed Mina had it been anyone else, yet now she allowed it to be held. In a way, she almost welcomed it - even after a full-scale emotional breakdown, Momo continued to be as affectionate and clingy as before. As they walked back into the main school building, a distant part of Mina listened as the other Japanese students chatted excitedly about one thing or another. Despite Mina’s melancholy mood, the world spun madly on.

“No way, jokbal is way better than cheese kimbap. Are you crazy?” The absurd argument suddenly brought Mina’s attention back to full.

“Please stop arguing about food, I didn’t eat lunch and there’s still two hours before I can go home and feed myself,” Mina whined, a pang of hunger suddenly coming to the forefront of her mind.

“Oh shit, right. At least Jihyo and I managed to grab sandwiches,” Sana winced.

“Eh? You didn’t eat at all? How are you gonna get through another hour of exercise?” Momo stopped dead in her tracks, shaking their linked hands in a panic.

“Ah, don’t worry about it, Momo. It’ll be okay so long as I don’t make a habit out of it. At least we don’t have AP dance today.” The omega reassured the frantic older girl.

Momo looked at her skeptically. Mina’s stomach took the opportunity to growl softly, to the laughter of Sana. “Oh yeah, totally okay.”

Momo ran a hand through her dark bangs. “Just.., if you get woozy let me know. I’ll dance twice as hard for you so Hyoyeon-nim will let you take a snack break!”

“I… don’t think that’s how it works, Moguri.” Mina grinned at Momo’s dismay, squeezing their hands in comfort.

“No, it’ll totally work,” Sana insisted. “Momo and I will dazzle Hyoyeon with our moves so you can escape to one of the vending machines and be back before she notices!” Sana declared, earning a small cheer from Momo in agreement.

“Alright, deal.” Mina giggled at their antics. “But only because I’d want to see you two perform a pas de deux.” She winked conspiratorially.

“A what?” The duo cried in unison.

* * *

While ballet was on the agenda, fortunately, Hyoyeon decided to start the year off with only simple exercises. Momo was far from the only new student, as several freshmen were also enrolled in the shared-grade class, as well as a couple students who were taking the class for the first time. Among the two dozen enrolled were the younger trio from lunch. After Hyoyeon finished demonstrating a few barre routines, Mina took the opportunity provided to approach the girls and formally apologize for the strange encounter with Nayeon.

“Mianhaeyo,” The class councilmember bowed deeply to the freshmen, “I’m regretful for giving you two a poor first impression of our school. I hope you don’t take such occurrences to be the norm.” Mina then turned to Dahyun and bowed again. “And I’m sorry for letting you down, Dahyun-ah.”

Dahyun returned the bow somewhat uneasily, nodding to show she was accepting of the situation, albeit uncomfortable at the formal apology. Chaeyoung took her chance to respond, smiling kindly. “It’s alright unnie, it must have been harder for you as Nayeon-ssi’s hubae. We won’t judge anyone for what happened.” Tzuyu nodded in agreement. With that, the earlier encounter was all but forgotten, the ease at which forgiveness came quelling Mina’s nervousness.

“Thank you for your patience, Chaeyoung. If any of you ever need anything, Sana and I are always happy to help. Though…” Mina glanced around at the sizable class, “I guess nearly all the student council members are here as well.” Both freshmen seemed a bit baffled, so Mina and Dahyun took the opportunity to point out those present - there was the entirety of the senior class student council, comprised of Seolhyun, Seulgi, Wheein, and Sowon, as well as Park Chaeyoung and Jung Eunbi from the sophomore council.

“I’ve always heard that those in the performative arts tended towards leadership roles, but I never really noticed that tendency for myself until now.” Dahyun gave Mina a pointed glance.

“Hey, why are you looking at me like that? I swear, I’m a black sheep, I don’t even know why anyone voted for my appointment.” Mina blinked. Since being informed towards the end of last year that she would be joining Sana and Jihyo on their class council, she had always thought of it as a mistake - or a joke, perhaps. Yet after Yerin had stepped down from her position, Mina had earned over eighty percent of their class’ vote. She hadn’t even expressed any interest in the position, yet here she was now. Even seeing all the council members around her wasn’t enough to quell Mina’s insecurities.

“If you say so, but if it walks like a duck and sounds like a duck…” Dahyun assured.

“I’m not a duck!” Mina insisted, “But I’ll see you guys around,” Mina bid the trio farewell, offering another sheepish bow that was met with a firm sigh from the sophomore.

By the time Mina made it back to her friends’ sides, Sana was still struggling to complete her barre work. Momo was also having problems, however, her issue seemed to lie in the techniques required, not so much the flexibility to pull them off. With a quiet clearing of her throat, Mina began her exercises, hoping that the subtle example would be enough for the two to get the hang of things. Momo immediately stilled, watching Mina as she leaned forward into an arabesque, held, and then reached up and bent her leg into an attitude. She watched for several minutes, seemingly spellbound, as Sana continued struggling to her other side.

“Why is this so hard!” The vice president cried.

“Probably because you went all summer without practicing, again,” Mina answered matter-of-factly, never pausing in her warm-ups. “Remember freshman year when you finally did the splits right before Christmas, and then came back from winter break and couldn’t anymore?”

“I thought that was because of the holiday weight I gained.” Sana pouted.

“Well that too, but mainly it’s just that you never do your exercises at home. You just jump straight into dancing without warming up. It’s really a wonder you haven’t pulled a muscle yet.” Mina sighed. Beside her, Momo placed one hand on the barre and extended back into a suitable, if slightly shaky, arabesque. Mina paused in her own routine, watching.

Momo curled her leg and straightened her arm, wobbling. She flashed Mina an adorably frustrated look, her distress prompting her to assist.

“You’re not holding your abdominals tight enough. And when you go out for the attitude, you’re too relaxed, so you lose balance.” Mina circled behind her, reaching out as Momo returned to arabesque. “May I?”

“G-go ahead.” Momo’s voice wavered, struggling to hold her position. Mina reached around the other girl, holding her stomach taut as she raised Momo’s arm into the appropriate position. She felt Momo’s abs flex underneath her hand, her back straightening just slightly as a result. Heat poured off of Momo's body in waves, the feeling making Mina uneasy.

“You don’t have to hold your hand completely straight, let it relax a bit and drape, like a leaf on the wind,” Mina instructed carefully, quickly pulling her hands back to let Momo hold the position on her own. The shakiness was gone. “Good. You can just practice this on its own, rotating with pliés, or you can keep attempting the attitude until you’re able to hold it.” They met eyes in the mirror, a slight upwards turn of Momo’s mouth enough to convince Mina she was all set.

By the time Mina turned back to address Sana, the other girl was nearly falling over in her attempts to follow the example. Her whining increased in volume until Mina scolded her.

“Quit it! Your technique is fine, Sana, but you’re just not flexible enough right now. You’re going to end up hurting yourself, just stretch and do your pliés and passés. Please.” Mina begged, knowing that Sana’s overconfidence could result in much worse than a pulled muscle if this went on.

“I’m so sad. Practicing is so boring, why is life like this?” Sana cried. Mina sighed, knowing this was far from the last time they’d have this same discussion.

“You have to wait in line to get to the movie,” Momo offered, completely baffling Sana into silence. Mina shook her head and resumed her routine. As much as things changed, even more stayed the same.

* * *

Eventually, warmups drew to a close, and Hyoyeon gave all of the girls the beginning of a routine to practice. The routine would be performed at the beginning of the next week, at any level of complexity demonstrated. Depending on their individual performances, the students would be sorted and graded - the more skilled girls, by the end of the semester, would be given the choice of taking AP dance with Hyoyeon and Yuri.

Sana set her jaw, a fire in her eyes. Every year the omega declared at the beginning of the year that she would make it into AP dance, and every year she failed to meet her own expectations. Sana didn’t even have any time in her schedule for the class, let alone an actual desire to take it, but it was a personal progress goal that the girl still chased after. Last year she had come quite close, but a lack of coordination in her group for the final performance of the year led to the girl falling just short. Mina was sympathetic, as she knew Sana had practiced day and night for the final, only to miss her goal due to her group mates’ apparent apathy.

The first scoring was equally as important for Momo. She had already made the cut for AP dance during her school audition, but it was critical that she prove she deserved the spot over a returning student. A bad first impression or continued underperforming could mean Momo would be removed from the class, and another student brought in. The girl certainly seemed capable enough, but Mina couldn’t help but wonder if Momo would be able to overcome her habitual nervousness. Though, if Mina could overcome her anxieties, it was hard to imagine Momo falling victim to the same.

Now as for Mina… “Why’d it have to be hip-hop?” She whined. The cost of underperforming for her was minor, yet for her pride’s sake, she wanted to make a good impression. However, this style was one of Mina’s weakest, truly opposite in nature to her childhood training.

“Well, Hyoyeon-nim _does_ have a hip-hop focus.” Sana quipped, glad to see Mina more challenged after the ballet warmups she had breezed through.

“That doesn’t mean half of our assignments have to be hip-hop!” The omega flopped down dejectedly in the corner of the hall. She took a long drink out of her water bottle. “There’s modern, latin, ballroom, swing, jazz, cultural…”

“I like hip-hop,” Momo chimed in, a small smile on her face as she sat next to Mina. The girl’s rant trailed off, point forgotten as she stared at Momo’s cheerful expression. It was hard to argue with that.

“There’s worse things. She could be making us do a line dance,” Sana added playfully, before clutching Mina’s hand to her chest dramatically. “One of these days we’ll be assigned a K-Pop dance, and then watch out world! Minatozaki Sana will show everyone who’s boss.” The trio laughed easily at the passionate declaration, nodding in agreement. If there was one thing Sana did well, it was enticing others with her natural charisma.

Momo leaned into Mina’s side. “If you’re worried about not doing well, Minari, I can teach you.” Momo offered softly, an arm looping around her waist. The gesture was nice, if slightly uncomfortable due to the heat radiating from the dancers and the sweat sticking to their skin. Sana wisely leaned away, fanning her glowing face.

The room would’ve reeked if not for a pheromone-neutralizing air conditioning unit attached to one wall - a countermeasure installed early last year amid complaints that the administration wasn’t implementing enough preventative measures. If only those were purchased for every classroom, yet cost-inefficiency made that a pipe dream.

“Thank you, Momo. I get the moves, but somehow when I do the routine altogether it never looks right.” Mina shook her head. Usually, she got by on assignments like this through technical grading alone. If not for that saving grace, she feared her spot in the AP class would be as good as gone.

“You’re pretty stiff.” Sana agreed, stretching lazily as she got back on her feet. “Sometimes you just gotta let go and let it take you.”

“Letting go is just bound to turn me into a massive pheromone pump again,” Mina muttered quietly, “It’s hard to overcome that fear.”

Sana grinned, “Maybe letting your pheromones go wild will earn you a better grade. People sure seem to like it.”

“A nice thought,” Mina laughed, “But Hyoyeon is a beta, remember? That wouldn’t even work on Yuri since she can only smell Yoona now.” Sana pouted, her devilish plan ruined before it had even been given a chance to live. Momo cocked her head to the side curiously.

“I wonder how that even works. Nobody knows, right?”

“Nope, complete mystery,” Sana answered, offering Momo a hand up. “I hear some doctors are trying to figure out how to break mating bonds though. So far the only way they’ve found is removing the gland entirely.”

Mina shuddered. “It’s so weird. I can’t imagine being bonded to someone and then having to go through an experimental surgery _just_ to be able to break up with them.”

Momo set about practicing the intro to their assigned dance, listening offhandedly while Sana replied. “Or what about if you’re widowed? Pheromones suck, but imagine not being able to smell anyone. Then you’re basically a beta, but a screwed up beta who can’t even get a new mate if you wanted to.”

“There're few things in this world that make suppressants seem like a good option, but that’s one of them.” Mina pondered the harsh realities of their world. She took one last swig of water before putting an end to their break, flanking Momo alongside Sana. They watched her run through the choreo once before resetting, ready to tackle it as a trio.

“Let’s try this from the top.”

* * *

“Alright everyone, if you don’t have another class with me after this, hit the showers,” Hyoyeon called, earning a relieved sigh from the students. Dance was a rewarding field, but even some of the most skilled students were happy to see the end of one of Hyoyeon’s notoriously tiring classes. Still, a small handful of students danced on, not wasting any precious practice time. Amongst them was Momo, who stilled only as Sana and Mina stopped and began to collect their things.

“You don’t have to go back out to the shed, do you?” Momo inquired worriedly.

“Ah, no. There are no shared change rooms in here, just individual private showers. Sometimes people opt to share so they don’t have to wait, but that’s it.” Mina shrugged, Sana charging on ahead to get to the showers before the rest of the class. “Which is why Sana is sprinting now…”

“Oh, sorry.” Momo blushed, realizing her innocent question had potentially caused Mina to be late to her next class.

“It’s okay, I’ll just make her share. We’ve already showered together once today, may as well go for a double.” Mina shuddered. A slight blush crept up her neck as she remembered the incident. She hadn’t felt embarrassed then due to the circumstances, but no doubt Sana would get in some playful teasing this time. Mina could hear it now, _What’s this Mitang, could it be you’ve decided you like showering together? I knew one day you’d stop resisting my charms!_

She shook her head, suddenly realizing Momo was looking at her expectantly. “Um, so I guess I’ll see you tomorrow?” The girl ventured nervously.

Mina smiled softly. “Or I can walk you back to your locker after class. Just in case you forgot your combination.” She then rubbed the back of her neck self-consciously, feeling a slight heat rising from below her skin. “Unless you’ve got somewhere to be, or don’t want me to?”

Momo blinked. “N-no! I-I mean yes!” She stuttered out in a panic, “No I’m not in a rush, yes I want you to! Please. I mean. If that’s not too much trouble.” Momo’s skin glowed crimson, her gaze rooted to her shoes. Mina reached forward and tapped the back of her hand, Momo’s eyes darting up to look at her from below her bangs.

“I’d love to. I’ll meet you right outside after you’re done showering.” The pair smiled warmly at each other before Mina looked over her shoulder at the now nearly-empty dance hall. “I’ve got to go catch up to Sana! I’ll see you soon, Momoring.” They bid each other farewell hurriedly a final time before Mina dashed off, hoping to catch their other friend before the opportunity to rid herself of sweat was all but lost.

* * *

As it turned out, Sana had waited patiently for Mina. As the other council member approached the shower rooms, the vice president had flung open the door dramatically with a decree of, _I knew this day would come, beloved!_ It was even worse than Mina imagined. Yet once actually in the shower, Sana kept her previous word, keeping her gaze fixed as far away from her friend as possible. She was polite, and dare Mina say, almost gentlemanly in her obedience. The only additional teasing remark was Sana claiming that, _If you keep using my shampoo like this, soon enough when you blush you’ll smell like roses instead of cotton candy_. Mina doubted that was how pheromone scents worked, but she had laughed at the statement nonetheless.

“So we’re keeping Momo, right?” Sana ventured as they both dressed.

Mina raised an eyebrow quizzically at the girl. “What do you mean _keeping_ , she’s not a puppy…” She trailed off, thinking of Momo’s docile gaze and affectionate behaviour. “... even if she does kind of act like one.”

“What I mean is that you seem to be pretty fond of her. It’s going above and beyond just being a good fake-Seonbae.” Sana smirked, hurriedly adding, “I like her a lot too. She’s like a more fun version of you.”

“First of all, I take offense,” The younger omega turned, glaring over her shoulder at Sana. “Secondly, of course I consider Momo a friend. She’s sweet.”

“And cute,” Sana added playfully, bending to tie a shoe.

“I’m not going to confirm nor deny that,” Mina replied, “I’ll just remind you not to hit on her.”

Sana chuckled, quipping back easily. “No need to get alpha-territorial over your new crush.” The older girl straightened up, quickly dodging out of the way of a thrown towel. “Violence! I surrender Minari, Momo’s all yours.”

“She’s not --” Sana dashed out of the room before Mina could argue. She huffed in frustration as she gathered the last of her things. While she could now say with certainty that sharing a shower with Sana wasn’t as bad as expected, the girl’s teasing never failed to get a rise out of Mina. It seemed that Momo was Sana’s newest ammunition in her gentle ribbing of Mina, and she had the feeling that wouldn’t soon change.


	7. blooms throughout

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oof, this one's extremely late. life's been hectic, and turns out i'm not the best at juggling work and play. who knew? (i... i knew.) i'll try to get these out more regularly now - i struggled with this chapter a lot for some reason - but no promises since you know. i break promises.

Though the theatre was right beside the dance hall, Mina found herself frozen outside the entrance even as the bell rang. Up until now, she had spent her time trying not to think about this class. But now she was rooted in fear and trepidation. If not for the class being key to her specialization, she would drop it without a second thought - for the past year and a half it had been a prison for all of the girl’s anxieties. It wasn’t that she had a problem with the teacher, Jung Soojung, or even the curriculum, even despite its’ social nature proving challenging for Mina.

It was a minor, yet an extremely important detail that kept the omega distressed. A detail that she tried her best to ignore, yet now was going to have to face head-on. Despite how important it was to her schooling, she sometimes found herself thinking about discarding the class anyways, no matter how badly it would look on her transcripts. There was always the option to take more dance classes alongside Momo...

She sighed. There was nothing Mina could do about the situation laid out before her and she knew it. With any luck, maybe the sources of her discontent had decided not to take another year of theatre. After the events earlier in the day, that slim hope was all Mina could hold onto. Mustering what confidence she could, the omega took a deep breath, forced her best smile, and walked into the room.

Instantly, a set of dark eyes pierced Mina. Her blood ran cold.

There was only one thing worse than being in the same room as Im Nayeon, and that was being in a room with Im Nayeon _and_ Yoo Jeongyeon. Suddenly finding it hard to breathe steadily, the omega’s heart beat sporadically within her chest. Simultaneously, half of the class’ heads turned, filling Mina with even greater dread as a near-whine escaped her mouth. Of course, things weren’t bad enough - the entirety of the class _had_ to be alphas as well. The terrible feeling swirling within Mina’s gut wasn’t the least bit alleviated by a friendly smile and beckoning motion from Joy. Nonetheless, with nowhere else to go, greeted with Nayeon’s impassive stare and Jeongyeon’s complete avoidance of her gaze, Mina retreated to where Joy was sitting with Chungha.

“Hey,” Mina winced at the wavering of her own voice.

“Afternoon, Mina-ssi,” Chungha replied carefully, making a pointed effort not to stare at Mina in quite the way the rest of the class was. Despite her cool exterior, she at times had difficulties around Mina and Sana - so for the most part, Chungha did her best to give them ample space.

“You smell like the inside of a candy store.” Joy laughed, “You’re really that scared, huh?”

Mina remained silent, rubbing the back of her neck in an attempt to lessen her scent. She sometimes wished that her pheromones were a little more normal. Most omegas in movies smelt like flowers, or something herbal and elegant. Sana smelt like flowers, of all things. But Mina had to smell like pure liquid sugar as if she was a five-year-old who had raided a cookie jar.

“Honestly, it’s understandable. If looks could kill, Nayeon would have quite the talent as an assassin.” Chungha’s voice had a slight waver to it, causing her to clear her throat. “I don’t understand what happened between you two, but she knows better than to bother you with us around.” As if to prove her point, the alpha tilted her head towards the senior, who had turned her attention away from them. That declaration was enough to get a rise out of the omega.

“Nothing happened!” Mina exclaimed, slightly too loudly. “It’s complicated. But I hear she’s very nice… I’d like to be able to see that side of her, but some things don’t work out so easily.”

Joy pat Mina on the shoulder. “Well, you’re always welcome to hang out with us. Or hide behind us. Whichever you prefer, Mina. Once Soojung-nim walks in fifteen minutes late, nobody will pay you any mind.”

Chungha nodded solemnly, “I think half of the students here are taking this class just to spend time in the same room as the school’s most desired omega.” The blunt statement was met with a disbelieving glare from Mina, prompting the alpha to clarify, “That’s not why _I’m_ taking this class! I don’t even like omegas like that.”

“But… you’re an alpha?”

“Yeah, so? You’re an omega, and you don’t like alphas. It’s no different.” Chungha clarified simply, putting Mina’s concern to rest. “It’s just easier that way.”

“Well, when you put it like that…” Mina started, when the young teacher walked in, uncharacteristically only five minutes late.

“Alright, time for icebreakers. No complaining, and no half-assing.” The acting instructor took a long draw from her coffee, before perching on the edge of a stool at the front of the stage. “Oh, and, welcome to a new year.”

* * *

 After a half hour of introductions and general acting warm-ups, Mina found herself slightly more at ease. Chungha and Joy offered an intimidating enough front that none of their classmates felt comfortable staring at the omega, even when Mina’s habitual bashfulness kicked in whenever she was prompted to speak. Even Nayeon avoided glaring, for the most part.

Then Gangsa Soojung brought that protective bubble crashing down. “We’re going to break off into paired exercises now. Choose quickly, but carefully. This will be your partner for the whole semester. Let’s go.” Mina balked, Soojung’s words sending another jolt of fear through her. She stared at the ground, not liking either of the results laid before her.

Joy began to speak, “Chungha can find another partner Mina, it’s okay.” That was the first result - pity. That result was unacceptable. No matter how bad the alternative was, Mina still had her pride. She shook her head firmly.

“Don’t worry, I can find my own.” Her soft voice betrayed Mina’s false confidence, but before Joy could protest, she rose to her feet and offered the pair a short bow. “I’ll talk to you guys later.” With that statement, Mina turned on her heel, choosing the marginally less wounding option of approaching Soojung for a partner assignment, hesitating slightly when she noticed the instructor was distractedly perusing a script.

Yet that hesitation was all another, equally uncertain student needed to approach Mina in kind.

“Hello, Myoui Mina-ssi?” A blonde freshman bowed to her, voice firm yet gentle. “My name is Hwang Eunbi. We had dance class together just before this. I was wondering if you had a partner yet?” The slight smell of burning floated through Mina’s senses. Despite that sign of nervousness from the younger girl, her tone held steady and her gaze was warm and certain. Definitely a young alpha, full of confidence and promise.

Before a chance to respond arose, Soojung noticed their presence. “I see you girls have found a partner. Mina, be sure to take care of your hubae --” She faltered momentarily in surprise, staring at the freshman for reasons unknown to the pair. “ -- em, sorry. Eunbi was it?”

“Yes, but you can both call me Shinbi. I’m excited to be in your class this year, Soojung-nim!” The young girl bowed formally. Mina silently bowed her head, accepting that, regardless of whether she would’ve accepted the freshman’s invitation to be partners, they were stuck together now. There were few more favourable options, anyhow.

“Well, I am glad to hear you’re… enthusiastic. Now get to work.” Soojung took a final glance at the girl as she turned her attention back to the script, but not before shaking her head and muttering to herself.

Mina turned and formally bowed to the younger girl. “Then I suppose that settles it. Let’s work hard this year, Sinbi.”

* * *

 It was only after their third attempt at practicing a scene where Mina failed to meet Shinbi’s gaze at all, let alone deliver her lines in a fashion that didn’t sound pained, that the freshman confronted her.

“Yah! Did I do something wrong, or am I just that awful to be around, Mina-ssi?” Shinbi’s tone was joking but belied a sense of frustration and confusion. She had been patient up until now, but even the most tolerant person would be annoyed by this point.

Mina’s face turned pale as she realized how her behaviour must have come off to the younger girl, who was completely ignorant to Mina’s inner turmoil - a condition better understood by those of her class and above. “No, not at all. I’m sorry, Eun--” Mina sighed, correcting herself, “-- Shinbi. It’s just, I’ve had long-standing problems with alphas at this school, and this class is filled with nothing but them. I’m feeling really uncomfortable.” The young alpha furrowed her brow, trying to understand Mina’s quiet explanation. “It’s not fair of me to put my baggage on you, I’m sorry. I’m just really tense. And trying not to peacock.”

Shinbi blinked in utter confusion. “Peacock?”

“Eh, exert pheromones. It’s new terminology, I guess.” That or Jihyo had made the word up. Slang had to come somewhere, Mina supposed.

“That was you earlier who smelt like gooey marshmallows? I thought I was losing it.” Shinbi looked at Mina incredulously. “I can understand to an extent, but don’t be so cold towards people you’ve never even met. There’s no harm in being guarded, but you have to be reasonable. How else can you get to know anyone, right?”

Mina sighed resignedly, “I know, Jihyo-unnie says the same thing. I’m sorry for not being a good example for you like I should. I’ll try to be a more sociable person.”

“Hey now, I don’t need you to be warm and bubbly or anything, it would just be weird for your personality to do a complete 180.” Shinbi clarified, taking Mina’s script and setting them down. She stared evenly at Mina. “Just try to meet my gaze and then once that’s handled, we can work on saying your lines a little louder, okay?”

“Okay,” Mina said, staring firmly back.

* * *

Even with Mina working diligently to make up her lacklustre initial performance to Shinbi, by the end of class she still exited with a feeling of hopelessness. They were well behind the others’ progress, with Nayeon and her partner already having finished their Act 1 readthrough with some time to spare. It was disheartening enough that Mina’s prior promise completely slipped her mind as she proceeded out of the Performance Arts wing and up to her locker.

Her mind filled with insecurities, Mina was severely startled when she was greeted with a hand slamming her locker shut.

“YAH!” Sana’s yell would’ve been enough to make a younger Mina faint, or at the very least burst into fearful tears. As it was, she nearly jumped out of her skin.

“What the hell!” Mina yelled back, shyness temporarily forgotten in complete fright.

“Why are you ditching your girlfriend, you jerk!” More than a few heads had turned at this point. It was interesting enough to see people arguing and swearing loudly in the hallway, but it was another thing altogether when it was two omegas.

Because of Mina’s racing heart, and the pungent smell of roses clouding around her, it took the younger girl a second to understand Sana’s reasoning. “My girlfr... MOMO!” Sana’s completely exasperated look was enough for Mina to rapidly shove her books back into her backpack in a bid to get back downstairs as quickly as possible. “Shit, I’m an asshole! Oh my god, I forgot, thank you Sana!” Mina’s speech was garbled as she rushed the distressed statement out. From Sana’s perspective, it was a mess of panted gibberish and swearing, and then Mina was running back down the hall.

“Hopeless!” The vice president yelled after her. “And you owe me lunch!”

By the time Mina had none-too-gently pushed her way through a dozen other students in the stairwell, and even more pooling in the area of the foyer - some even moving out of the way as they heard and smelt her coming, she was ten minutes later than when she had promised to meet Momo. Her hopes that perhaps Momo had decided to take a long shower was dashed at the sight of the girl staring at her feet, in the middle of a conversation with none other than Im Nayeon. The omega cursed for the fourth time in the last minute.

Mina stalled for only a second, aware that the longer she hesitated the worse things would look when trying to explain. Such a mistake could be laughed off in a longstanding friendship, but with something so new, carelessness could be disastrous. So, filled with dread and fear, Mina did something completely rare for her: she lied.

“Momo!” Mina called, ignoring Nayeon’s presence momentarily as she approached. “I’m so sorry I’m late, Miyoung-nim needed me to deliver some forms from the office right away.” Though the lie tasted bitter and weak on her tongue, as Momo’s guileless gaze turned onto the council member and a wide grin spread across her face, Mina knew without a doubt Momo trusted her.

Nayeon on the other hand, smirked exquisitely. Her eyes, normally cold, took on a look somewhat like fire. “Is that so? Funny, I just saw Gangsa Miyoung going into a meeting with the other homeroom teachers.”

Though Mina’s heart was filled with instant panic and regret, she prayed her face didn’t show it. As she replied smoothly for once, she felt stoic. “Of course. That’s why she needed them fetched immediately, so Hani-nim could start filling them out right away.”

Nayeon’s laugh felt almost warm, yet still sounded as loud and harsh as Mina was used to. “I see. Hopefully, she doesn’t take to sending you on errands like that very often, Myoui-ssi.” The slight again flew over Momo’s head, though Mina knew without a doubt Nayeon had caught her lie. After all, an actor knew lies better than anyone. If the alpha planned on calling her on it, however, she showed no sign of it currently. “Well, I’ll not be a third wheel. Talk to you tomorrow, Momo. Good _acting_ today, Myoui.”

It took all of Mina’s willpower not to turn to make sure Nayeon had really gone. She swallowed back her unease and offered Momo a genuine smile. “I _am_ really sorry about being late.”

“It’s okay,” Momo giggled, seemingly unflustered. “Nayeon started talking to me right after I left, I barely noticed the time.”

They turned to walk together, Mina choosing to calmly inquire about Nayeon’s farewell. “So you guys are going to eat lunch again tomorrow?”

Momo nodded, her happy demeanour putting Mina at ease. “Yeah, I’d eat with you if I could but…” She glanced at the younger girl out of the corner of her eye. “It’s the first week of classes, I’m pretty sure you’ll end up having meetings for the next while, right?”

Mina pouted. She’d been hoping that wouldn’t be the case, but Momo’s logic was well-founded. “Yeah, probably. I guess I should pack a lunch to be safe next time.”

It was fifteen minutes past the bell, and the foyer had emptied out considerably, the stairwell completely bare. It felt quite similar to that morning when the pair had met. They walked in silence momentarily, before Momo broke the quiet with a soft question. “Minari, are we friends?”

The genuine insecurity of the query caused Mina to stop in her tracks. She reached out for Momo’s hand, stilling the other girl. “Of course we are. What made you ask?”

“Nothing, really. I guess just since you’re a part of the class council I wasn’t sure if this was just you being nice. Helping out, you know?” While the explanation was sound enough, Momo’s expression was completely unreadable. Something told Mina there was something else, some deeper reasoning behind the question, but Mina didn’t know how to ask, or if she should even try to push for that much.

“There’s definitely more to it than that. Jihyo was doing her job, yes, but Sana and I genuinely like you. N-not that Jihyo doesn’t!” Mina stuttered, correcting herself. “She hasn’t has the time to get to know you the same way we have, though.”

Momo nodded, the explanation seeming to sit well with her, as that radiant smile returned full force. “I like you guys too.” Suddenly a thought seemed to strike the older girl as they stopped in front of her locker. Momo’s smile turned coy as she turned to Mina. “I think I like you more, though.” A flush that glowed as brightly as the sun instantly covered Mina’s mortified face. Momo cackled gleefully. “Ahah, Sana’s right, that’s really fun!”

“Stop it! You guys aren’t allowed to hang out anymore!”

Momo’s giggling only increased. “If you say so, ‘unnie’.” Mina huffed in feigned annoyance, quickly spinning Momo’s lock to her customized combination. The truly older girl was shocked enough that her teasing came to a crashing halt. “Huh? How’d you - “

“I told you not to set it to 123456. But I didn’t say anything about 654321.” Mina smirked, and this time Momo was the one to flush. “You’re not slick, Hirai. Get going, students aren’t allowed on campus after 5 pm. Unless you want detention?”

“No, unnie.” Momo breathed out, but Mina’s arched brow rendered her inert. “You win this time.”

“I’ll win every time. And don’t call me unnie, you’re older. It’s weird.” Momo nodded at Mina’s request as she moved her books into her locker.

Suddenly though, a quiet quip hit back at the younger girl, accentuated by a wink from Momo. “Okay, then you can call _me_ unnie.”

So many Mina hadn’t won as cleanly as she had thought.


	8. my hollow chest

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> to my fellow canadians - happy belated canada day. to our southern neighbours, happy independence day.

The sun was low in the sky by the time Mina got to her dorm. One thing that she would never get used to in Korea was just how early the sun could set in the colder months, but she was reassured by the thought that soon spring would be in full swing and the days would lengthen considerably. She’d welcome the warmth as well, despite warmth always bringing heightened hormones amongst the alpha caste.

Thoroughly exhausted from the last hour of meetings with the entire school’s council representatives, and ravenously hungry from her missed lunch, Mina inelegantly shoveled down the last of her New Year’s tteokguk. Typically for dinner, she ordered food in, rather than spend the time required to cook - that luxury was saved for the weekends. The foreign student meal stipend that came with their tuition and dorm costs really wasn’t enough for much healthy food regardless, not that Mina personally ran into that problem.

Now for the first time, the time crunch became an issue for the girl. Student council duties meant Mina had to be up an hour earlier, and get home an hour later than others in her class, on top of needing time to pack lunches for herself. That was ignoring homework, studying, after-hours practice, and whatever fragments of a social life she had. Suddenly Mina had a newfound respect for all of those times Sana came out with her to dinner, knowing that the older omega not only had the same schedule and circumstances but also was less privileged in terms of family wealth. Mina reminded herself to buy Sana’s meal next time she brought her out to avoid the discomfort of eating alone.

Thinking of Sana also brought to mind that Mina owed her lunch, as well. With that appreciation of her friend at the forefront of Mina’s thoughts, she set about cooking, determined to show her gratitude through sheer service. And then, tomorrow, she’d ask how on earth Sana had managed to do this all that time.

* * *

 The next day dawned a degree too bright and early for Mina’s liking, yet her groggy steps were lifted considerably at the sight of Sana with an extra cup of coffee at the Academy’s gates. The pair beamed widely, each recognizing with delight at the other’s extra offering. Mina delicately stacked the two prepared dosirak on top of each other, taking the presented caffeine eagerly. Sana, in turn, took the extra lunchbox, giggling delightfully.

“I didn’t think you would actually do it, I was prepared to run to the cafeteria to buy my lunch and everything.” The older girl peeked inside, a look of delight spreading across her face. “Ah, kimbap. You’re too good to me, Mitang. Marry me?”

“You wish,” Mina scoffed, blushing slightly. “You wouldn’t shut up about it to Momo yesterday, so it was an obvious choice. Take this as a very platonic declaration of my gratitude. For yesterday, and in general.”

Mina turned elegantly, striding off to the front doors, eager to drop off their lunches and books before returning to the gate where they would greet students and inspect their IDs and uniforms. Sana followed, hopping close behind Mina’s heels. “Oh, what did I do to win your admiration?”

“Just.., I don’t know how you do all of this every day and still manage to be such a peppy and attentive friend.” The younger girl glanced at Sana, shaking her head in mild disbelief. “I barely did anything outside of regular school duties and still was exhausted most of the time.”

“Wanna know my secret, then?” Sana’s grin was too infectious for Mina to deny, nodding her acquiescence. “Four shots of espresso. Twice a day.”

Mina’s shocked and perturbed expression only served to entertain her companion. “Your heart will give out!”

“Ah, but it will only give out of love for you.” Sana swayed dramatically as she made the cheesy declaration. The younger omega was far from entertained.

“Yeah, you and Momo _definitely_ aren’t allowed to hang out anymore.”

* * *

 The pair met up with Jihyo soon afterward, taking their formal positions to the right of the Academy gates, alongside the Senior class council. They greeted each other politely, Jihyo chatting amicably with their treasurer, Kim Jisoo, while Mina found herself being congratulated for her nomination to the position by the vice president, Kang Seulgi. Before long, they returned to stoic silence as the first of the class students started to arrive.

Though the Academy small enough, the initial trickle of students turned into a larger, intimidating wave as most of the students arrived in the area by train. Under normal circumstances, Mina could recognize her classmates instantly, but she found herself overwhelmed as the Juniors poured into line. She remembered Sejeong first, her uniform impeccably clean and to school standard, then Sorn, whose makeup was the barest bit too apparent, but not significant enough to warrant more than a light warning, and then from there, things became a blur of regulations. Despite all the rules they had to adhere to, there were very rarely any cases that required more than reminders or gentle chiding. That day was no different.

Then the crowd began to thin into a sparse trickle of latecomers. Soon the courtyard was empty, save the members of the student councils still waiting on students - which was evidently only the Junior Council, and the Senior council who were responsible for the Freshmen as well. After an additional five minutes, the remaining Freshmen turned up, receiving warnings for tardiness. Still, Sana, Jihyo, and Mina waited.

Mina tried to think hard about who she hadn’t seen in the rush of students, and was about to ask who they were waiting for when her answer arrived in the form of a moderately disheveled Hirai Momo. Against regulation, Mina stepped out of line.

“Momo! What on earth -”

“My -” Momo bent over, hands on her knees, “- toaster -” she wheezed a breath in, “- caught -” Mina stopped in front of Momo, “- fire!” The new student finished, coughing loudly.

To say Mina was astonished was putting it lightly. She was shocked silent, prompting Sana to instead speak up. “What?”

“HOW?” Mina finally exclaimed.

“That’s no excuse for tardiness.” Jihyo declared, trying her best not to smile.

“I... - It’s a long story.” Momo offered, still visibly panting. “I’m sorry.”

“Unfortunately I have to be strict here. Detention after school today.” Jihyo shook her head regretfully. “I have to get to class and notify Hani and Gangsa Miyoung. Sana, you take the detention report to the office. Mina…” Jihyo stared pointedly at Momo’s sweat and ash-covered face, and her messy uniform. “Try your best to fix that… catastrophe, please. I’ll buy you half an hour.”

* * *

 On closer inspection, it proved a fruitless effort to try to ‘fix’ Momo’s uniform at all. According to the older girl, running the rice cooker, toaster, and a hair dryer all at once had caused a brief electrical surge that had ignited the cooking bread, and then tripped off all of the electricity in her room altogether. In her rush to put out the burning food without following her initial instinct to, quote, “toss the whole damn thing in with the dishes”, and potentially kill herself in the process, Momo instead opted to pull out the very ruined toast with her bare hands, burning her fingertips in the process and briefly setting fire to her tie - which she _did_ dump into the sink.

The result was a soggy and burnt tie, a shirt covered with soot and wrinkled oddly, and a girl who hadn’t the time or power to finish doing her hair. Mina was remarkably nonplussed by the story, though with their short time frame to fix Momo up, she was left a little lost. The tie had to be trashed, clearly, but the shirt couldn’t stay how it was, and Mina’s spare turned out to be a fair bit too small for Momo to appropriately button.

So Mina resolved to help Momo clean her face up and make her hair passable first, hoping that a solution would come to one of them before they were both given detention for further tardiness.

“I didn’t even realize you lived in the dorms, your family is back in Japan then?” Mina queried gently as she set about brushing Momo’s short hair into a manageable state. The other girl was busying herself with a damp soapy paper towel, trying ineffectually to clean a smattering of grease from her face, serving only to smear it further.

“Mm, in Kyoto. I’m here on a scholarship. Someone from the administration was in the audience at one of my dance showcases last year, and offered me a full ride if I passed the audition process.” Mina raised her eyebrow. Though she knew Momo had to be capable in order to be accepted at the school, scholarships of any sort were rare. She had to have been even more impressive than the omega had previously assumed.

“That’s quite admirable. Sana and I are housing in the dorms as well, our families are from Osaka and Kobe, actually. It can be lonely, so don’t be a stranger if you need some idle company.” Momo smiled gently at the offer, exploding into a full grin as Mina continued, “After you’re done your detention and I’m done with council, you can come over if your power isn’t back on yet. But no unsupervised cooking!”

“Really, wouldn’t I be bugging you? You didn’t strike me as a social butterfly, Minari.” The omega hummed as she ruminated over the question and a particularly unruly section of Momo’s hair. Mina took both challenges one piece at a time.

“You’re right, mostly I don’t like going out too much, but I also hate being alone. At first the quiet is nice, but that gets old once you realize there’s nobody around to care for you.” Mina’s hands worked deftly, her clever solution taking shape. “And sometimes I miss caring for other people, too. I think it’s about balance.”

“I might be excitable, but I’m actually not the most outgoing person either, honestly.” At this point, Momo had given up trying to fix the smear on her cheek, instead staring curiously at Mina in the mirror as she finished a delicate braid near the back of her hair.

Mina circled around to Momo’s front, giving her an appraising look before fetching a handkerchief from her bag. She wet a small portion of it with saliva, rubbing Momo’s face with it before she could react.

“Oh, ew! What are you -”

Mina smirked, pulling back after only a moment. Momo glanced in the mirror, shocked to see the grease the soap failed to cut was miraculously gone. “Saliva lifts and breaks down grime. Soap sometimes just spreads it around.”

Momo shook her head in disbelief. “Well, I’m not thanking you for indirectly spitting on my face, if that’s what you expect.” Mina merely chuckled in response, relieved that, unlike Sana, Momo didn’t head directly to jokes about indirect kissing. “Well I’m no longer hideous, but the shirt is still, excuse my French, fucked.”

Mina’s smirk was nothing short of devilish. “Yeah, about that. My shirt might not fit you, but…”

* * *

 One brief Momo heart attack later, and they were on their way to class, an embarrassing twenty minutes after the first bell. They were both anxious messes, despite Jihyo’s previous assurance that she’d prevent them from being punished for exceptional tardiness, the penalty for which was a minimum of a week’s detention and one warning strike. Three warning strikes in a semester led to a suspension, which in Momo’s case, voided the terms of her scholarship.

Momo had a second level to her anxiety, in the form of a sweater vest with the initials M.M. on it. Despite Mina’s rationale that Myoui Mina could also simply stand for Mo Mo, it was obvious enough who the vest - awarded solely to councilmembers - belonged to. Yet the fabric had enough natural stretch to it to fit Momo, and Mina found that the exclamation of alarm from her friend when the omega started stripping her own vest off was worth any teasing from Sana she’d later experience.

Mina walked a couple paces in front of Momo, taking the initiative to open the classroom door first. She immediately bowed a full 90 degrees, waiting for Miyoung to pause in her lesson before apologizing for her and Momo’s unpunctuality. Momo quietly echoed the apology, a look of agony spreading across her face when Sana noticed the addition to her uniform and immediately started swatting Jihyo and pointing. Miyoung sighed but nodded her forgiveness, excusing the girls to sit while she returned to teaching.

Momo was already blushing, but it reached its maximum darkness when, a precise three seconds after sitting at their desks, Sana turned her head slightly to whisper an “Undressing Mitang already, Momoring? I’ve taught you well.” While the comment thoroughly killed the embarrassed girl, it also served to fluster Mina moderately as well. To Miyoung’s credit, she only slightly paused mid-sentence when a powerful burst of sweetly scented fragrance erupted in the room, a more subtle aroma of peach layered underneath it. Then, without a further sign she noticed the disruption, she was back to explaining the different grammatical rules of various world languages.

A good portion of the class, however, was unable to follow Miyoung’s stellar example, despite their most valiant efforts. Many students failed to maintain a sufficient poker face, appearing visibly uncomfortable, but none more so than Jeongyeon, whose expression was nothing short of pained. Yet even that awkwardness passed, as it always did, and Mina set about her mission of catching Momo - and herself - up to where Miyoung was in the lesson.

* * *

 Lunch came much too soon for Mina’s liking. Their lessons had gone well enough, with the exception of the math section that Hani taught. Despite the assistant being a patient and capable teacher, Mina skimmed by, thoroughly average, but Momo’s initial struggling proved difficult to remedy with demonstration and explanation from Hani alone. Mina hoped that over the next week it started to click more for the girl, but failing that, she made a note to give Momo the number of Seungwan, the school’s best tutor. The senior had saved Mina’s skin just days before a big test more than once.

The omega sighed, resignedly packing up her notes. Momo smiled at her mutedly, following her friend’s example of getting her things together as the bell rung. A short farewell later, Mina made a quick stop at her locker, exchanging her book bag for her lunch and council planner.

She was really starting to regret accepting the council position, her predicament perhaps worsened by her dual role of treasurer _and_ secretary. Last year, Jeongyeon and Jennie had been elected to the positions, but, from Jihyo’s brief explanation, the tension between the pair led to Jeongyeon leaving, and Jennie was unable to continue her secretarial duties this year due to scheduling difficulties. The result was a lack of interest in either position, so when it came time for council elections, Mina ended up sweeping the poll - for both roles. Really, it was Mina’s fault for being foolish enough to accept, thinking that it would look good on her transcripts, and the encouragement from Jihyo and Sana made it seem like an obvious choice.

But now, Mina just really wanted to eat lunch with everyone else.

She slammed her locker door shut.

* * *

 The meeting seemed to drag on forever, as discussions regarding the showcase planning devolved into arguments between the class representatives. Whereas yesterday each class had met privately to crunch some easy numbers regarding the number of students within each specialization, today’s meeting regarded the class balance of the show. Traditionally the Seniors made up the majority of the performances since scouting from universities and different agencies weren’t uncommon. But this year the administration had suggested a complete 25% split between the classes, leading to heated discussions - especially when it came to the vocal performances, which were vastly dominated by the older classes.

Both Seulgi and the Sophmore vice president, Park Chaeyoung, voiced concerns that with the percentage of each class in various specialties so skewed, it would limit the classes’ overall balance between fields. Seulgi had also brought up the issue that numerous students, herself included, had double majors, which would throw the balance and overall numbers as well. By the time lunch had ended, very little had been decided, and it was agreed that the councils would reconvene on the issue at the end of the week, settling the more easily solved organizational issues first.

Somehow, despite Jihyo and Mina’s state of complete stress, Sana remained seemingly unbothered by the ordeal, nearly skipping out of the meeting room. “Thank you for the kimbap, it was delicious!”

“I don’t know how you managed to stomach it with all of the arguing that went on in there.” Mina groaned, Jihyo echoing her agreement.

“That’s one of the worst deliberation sessions we’ve had in a while. It’s always at the start of the year, too.” The class president mused, “Last year was definitely more heated though.”

“Oh yeah, that was the suppress-” Sana chimed in a bit too eagerly, then bit her tongue mid-sentence.

“The suppressants repeal,” Jihyo finished for Sana, sighing at the girl’s tactlessness. “The statistics for that vote was interesting, to say the least.” Mina’s quizzical expression was enough for the beta to elaborate a little, “Alphas almost exclusively voted to selectively repeal-”

“Except Jennie!” Sana chimed in.

“Except Jennie, who voted for complete repeal. Omegas exclusively voted to completely repeal-”

“‘Omegas’ being literally just me and Seulgi.” Sana interrupted again.

“- and betas were a mixed bag of complete repeal, selective repeal, and sustain. In the end, full repeal won by a single vote over selective repeal, with sustaining a single vote behind.”

“Who the hell would ever vote to sustain?” Mina questioned.

“The old seniors. Every sustain vote was from a beta. They didn’t have to take the dang pills for half a year.” Sana huffed dramatically. “Jennie saved our hides on that one, otherwise it would’ve just been majority caste rules.”

Mina ruminated over the conversation for a moment before realizing a key, unstated portion of the story. “You said Jennie was the only alpha to vote for full repeal. So Jeong…”

“Voted selective,” Jihyo answered succinctly. Her eyes darted away from Mina’s, seeking to avoid giving up any more detail than necessary. Unfortunately for her, Sana’s lack of tact reared its’ ugly head once more.

“That’s why she and Jennie kept fighting.” Jihyo’s sharp look went utterly ignored, Sana steamrolling on, to Mina’s abject horror. “Freshman year was bad enough, but Jennie gave Jeongyeon hell for voting to keep suppressing just omegas when she was the one who caused everything in the first place.”

Mina stood shell-shocked in front of the trio’s lockers. Though Jennie and Jeongyeon had butt heads ever since freshman year, she had never managed to put two and two together. “They fought about me for a _year!?_ Five minutes was bad enough!”

Jihyo sighed forlornly. “Which is why I didn’t tell you the details when you asked last year why Jeong quit council.” Mina grit her teeth, blowing a short breath through her nose. Not only was being fought over by two alphas for that length of time humiliating, it was aggravating that her best friends had seemingly decided to keep her in the dark.

Sana merely shrugged, her morality winning out. “I’m not gonna lie right to Mina’s face.”

“It’s not lying, it’s -”

“- withholding the truth. Got it. Thanks, guys.” Mina finished the older girl’s sentence snippily, grabbing her shower bag and leaving without another glance in their direction.


End file.
